The invention pertains to an envelope-filling station for mail-processing systems,                having a feeding device for horizontally feeding enclosures or sets of enclosures along a conveying path to a push-in arrangement, which executes an operating stroke in the conveying direction of the conveying path;        having an envelope-separating arrangement for separating envelopes from an envelope stack and for producing a sequence of separated envelopes;        having an envelope-conveying device which runs parallel to and alongside the conveying path and is intended for receiving the sequence of separated envelopes and for transferring same to an intermediate envelope-conveying device;        whereby the intermediate envelope-conveying device transports the envelopes, once they have been received from the envelope-conveying device, essentially in the plane of the conveying path upstream of the push-in arrangement; and        having aligning means for the positioning of an envelope, which is to be filled in each case, in a precise position upstream of the push-in arrangement.        
The person skilled in the art can learn of an envelope-filling station having essentially the features named above from FIG. 1 of DE 100 15 755 C1, for example.
The known design of an envelope-filling station of this type provides that, starting from an envelope-separating arrangement, the envelope-conveying device has a course that is parallel to the conveying path for the conveying of the enclosures or sets of enclosures, and provides at its end aligning means in the form of stops that can be adjusted to the envelope format, in such a way that the intermediate envelope-conveying device, which in the known envelope-filling stations exhibits a conveying direction that is perpendicular to the conveying direction of the conveying path, receives an envelope forwarded by the envelope-conveying device in a precisely aligned state, and by clamping it between an envelope conveyor belt that is directed over an envelope-filling table and a roller strip that can be lowered onto that, transports it, again in a precise position, to upstream of the push-in arrangement and brings it to rest there so that then, after the mentioned roller strip has been lifted, the filling of the envelope with enclosures or sets of enclosures can take place, after which the roller strip is again lowered onto the filled envelope and the envelope conveyor belt is put into operation and a removal of the filled envelope takes place.
It can be seen that with this known design, which is very advantageous per se, considerable industrial complexity and control complexity must be operated for aligning the envelope during the conveying segments in the region of the envelope-conveying device, in the region of the intermediate envelope-conveying device running perpendicular to that, and ahead of the push-in station.
This complexity has been accepted in the past, in particular, because the disposition of the envelope-conveying device situated parallel to and alongside the conveying path for the enclosures and sets of enclosures and at about the same level with this conveying path for adjusting, monitoring and general operation by the operator has proven to be advantageous, since when deployed next to the envelope-separating arrangement and the envelope-conveying device, the operator can also oversee the push-in arrangement and the feeding device for the enclosures or sets of enclosures and can intervene with all of these.
The task of the present invention is to configure an envelope-filling station with the features of the preamble to claim 1 in such a way that while retaining the advantageous positioning possibility for the operator, the complexity for aligning the envelope to be filled on the route between the envelope-separating arrangement and the push-in arrangement is simplified. The envelope-filling station suggested here is also intended to be suitable for elevated working speeds and to be reliable at elevated working speeds of over 12,000 working cycles per hour.